Harold Evans Dahl
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Harold Evans Dahl (29 June 1909–14 February 1956), mercenary American pilot who fought in the Spanish Civil War. He was a member of the ‘American Patrol’ of the Andres Garcia La Calle group. He was nicknamed ‘Whitey’ due to his very blond hair.
Born in Champaign, Illinois, he joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1933, as a Second Lieutenant. His commission ended in 1936 due to gambling and subsequent court convictions. He then became a commercial pilot but again gambling forced him to escape to Mexico. He was flying charter and cargo flights carrying material for the Second Spanish Republic, as Mexico was one of the very few distant countries to support the Spanish government. He was told about the good salary paid for mercenary pilots and so he joined Spain under the name of Hernando Diaz Evans. He scored five victories in this unit.
During the reorganization of the Fighter Squadrons in May 1936 Dahl was posted to a squadron with a large variety of nationalities. Frank Glasgow Tinker said that this made it very hard for a pilot to coordinate his place in the group during fighting. It seems that this was the case on the 13th of June, same year, where he was surprised by enemy planes and was shot down and taken prisoner.
Initially sentenced to death there were some diplomatic movements to free him. His wife Edith, a known singer of impressive beauty, was said to have visited Franco himself to plead for his life. He stayed in prison until 1940 and then returned to the U.S. He then joined the Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and served during World War II. After the war he was accused of stealing equipment from the air force and had been decommissioned. Around 1951 he joined Swissair and stayed in Switzerland but in 1953 he was again involved in a legal case and was expelled from the country. Back in Canada he became a cargo pilot flying DC-3s when on 14 February 1956 he was killed during a crash in bad weather.
